Saturday, September 30, 2006

So Jen's post got me thinking about my "glory days" back in the late 80's early 90's...I was looking through the CCHS football Hall of Fame, we're missing!, and their all time records...looking...searching for the detailed history of the years I was there and cheered...found us listed in the team history section...Coach Mike 1982-2001 W 72 L 112

Friday, September 29, 2006

Doug is still in a lot of pain...although he won't fess up to it. Comming home meant walking around a lot more than he did in the hospital and that brought on pain. I don't know what to expect these next couple of days...weeks...because we got no real instructions from the doctor because Doug is a Dr and they all just know these things. Unfortunately, the wife did not go to medical school so I'm sort of in the dark about all this...I hate that. So, I'm trying to keep everything quiet around here and let him get his rest...much tougher than it sounds! Thanks again for your prayers and support.~Christine

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Hey everybody~ I took Doug home this afternoon around 3:30pm. It seems as if the lining around his heart or lungs or both is inflamed because of the virus he had. I don't totally understand why or how this happened...but what I do know is that it was NOT a heart attack! He took a stress test this morning and the pain came right back and was worse...that was really scary and unexpected...but the test results came back normal so they sent him home with orders to rest and take it easy for a few weeks...we'll see...Thank you for your thoughts and prayers...I'm so grateful.

My doctor beautiful was admitted to the hospital as a patient yesterday because he was having chest pains. UGH! So far all the tests have come back that he did not have a heart attack and they also don't think he has a virus attacking his heart...praise God! We have all been quite sick here so hopefully this is just a side effect from the virus he had. But...last night was really hard...the kids are scared, I'm scared and really don't like this at all. Life has a way of catching you off guard and I'm feeling really shaken right now. Please pray.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

I can't find my check card. I've looked high and low. I've looked for 7 straight days. I know that it is in the house...I remember Doug giving it back to me and I remember thinking, "I'll put this here so that I don't forget where it is." I forgot. So, yesterday I went to Jewel and had to write a check. They had to check my drivers license and have my phone number and the whole 9 yards. I was that person who holds up the grocery line at 6pm...you know the one who everybody hates and sends death rays through their eyes and body language...I was that person. So as I'm leaving Jewel I walk over the the TCF counter and tell the girls I need to cancel my card and get a new one, simple enough. I tell them, "I will probably find the stupid thing as soon as I do this, but hey, I've looked for 7 days...it's gone. They take care of the whole thing and I feel great! Problem solved! Then I drive home and walk in the door and Doug looks at me with a huge smile and says, "I found the check card!" Seriously, I hadn't even put the grocery bags down. Isn't that just how life always is!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

My third child, Jacob Edward or Jed, looks at the world a little differently. When everyone else looks up he's usually looking down. He's not a trouble maker or naughty, he just dances to a different beat.

When asked, "In a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is more important the peanut butter or the jelly?" He looked at me sideways and said, "The bread."

He has a bag full of Jed-isms...for example he loves to ride the alligator(elevator) at the mall, thinks Doug works at a hostibal, and loves the color wipe.

Yesterday, he came out of the bathroom crying and told me that he had gonorrhea!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

I admire people who don't watch TV. I think they sound extraordinarly pious when I here people say, "Oh, I don't watch TV...don't have time."

I don't like to watch TV during the summer...can't stand reruns. But I LOVE this time of year. I get really excited about the new fall shows and can't wait for my old favorites to come back. Everytime the Grey's Anatomy commercial comes on...I have to stop what I'm doing to watch and say all the words along with the announcer. McDreamy...well...he really is McDreamy! sorry Doug... I wait on pins and needles for Desperate Housewives, love House, won't miss LOST 4,8,15,16,23,42, know all the characters on Veronica Marsand TIVO Oprah,What Not To Wear, and I'm a closet Miami Inkfan. My new favs so far are Studio 60 and Men inTrees and sort of liked Standoff. I don't have a clue when these shows air because we now TIVO everything and watch it when we can...some nights we stay up late so that we can clear the TIVO because it is too full. That's my confession...I love TV...NBC, CBS, ABC, TLC, HGTV, Food Network...oh don't get me started on Alton Brown, Rachel Ray, Iron Chef, or Paula Dean and her sons...I love Food Network too. Anyway, I'd love to stay and blog but I've got the two new epidsodes of Oprah waiting for me and only a few more minutes till nap time is over! See Ya!

Saturday, September 16, 2006

For weeks my husband and my girlfriends have been talking in whispers, having secret meetings and have stealthily planned a trist for my birthday. I have to congratulat them, they pulled it off...I did not know what was going on and they truly kept all the details from me. Here's how it went down,

Wednesday is coffee day and we had planned to go out for breakfast to celebrate. Laura came to pick up the kids to take them to the bus, she gave me one of those grins that said, "Let the games begin!" I was told that Tina was going to pick me up and drive me to breakfast. Strange... I thought something must be happening at breakfast....so my radar was up...way up! I sat at breakfast just waiting for something to happen but it didn't. We simply had a nice breakfast and then everybody left. Huh! Tina drove me home and we sat and talked for a while. Soon Laura was there too. We were just talking and I was planning my afternoon, I was going to take a LONG nap...it was dark and dreary outside...the perfect napping weather.

At noon, Doug walks in the door...strange! He hands me a WAD of cash and tells me that I have to go shopping and can't come back for 2 hours, strange! My birthday is a day away...why are we doing this now? Tina and Laura inform me they have work to do and that they can not come with me...strange...what the heck is going on here...what kind of work???I was completley snowed!

When I get back, my house is clean, my kids are gone, my bags are packed and my husband is ordering me back into the car....where are we going? OUT! OH, ok...strange...Turns out that the girls packed my bags while Doug took the baby to grandma's. Everything had been taken care of and I was going to be gone until SATURDAY! WOW!

We went to a beautiful hotel/timeshare at Eagle Ridge in Galena. The next morning, Doug woke me up early and told me to take a shower and get dressed in comfy clothes. I didn't need any make-up and my hair did not need to be done. Strange...he had booked me 1/2 a day at the Spa. A massage, a manicure and a pedicure was how I was going to spend my birthday...NICE! After the massage a bottle of champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries was waiting just for me...a WHOLE bottle of champagne at 10:30 in the morning...SWEET! The massage therapist had told me that I needed to learn to relax more...she should have started me with the champagne because after 1/2 a bottle I was starting to relax and after finishing the whole bottle let's just say I was WAY GIGGLY!

So, that was the story of how my husband and my girlfriend got me good! It is amazing to have so many people in my life who love me so much! Thank you to the girlfriends who helped Doug plan and took all my kids...I have a lot of them! And special thank you to Doug for working so hard to make my birthday so special...it takes a lot of work to plan and pack for 6 people...even harder when you are trying to keep it a secret...he did a great job! It's gonna be hard to top this one...but if anyone has any ideas let me know!

Monday, September 11, 2006

I remember sitting on the coffee table in front of the TV just watching with disbelief at what was happening, I couldn't really even comprehend what was going on. Honestly, I saw the video of the first plane crashing into the tower, I thought it was a special effect...it didn't look real.

I needed to bring Christian to his 2nd day preschool...I didn't know if it was safe. I listened to the radio for the entire ride and kept looking outside wondering if the people around me knew what was going on??? On my way home, their was a report that there might be a plane headed to Chicago...what was happening?

I have never been so afraid.

I never thought this could happen.

Where were you??? What were you doing when you heard?? How did you feel?? How has your life changed??

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Is it fair that I will soon be 34 years old and I still get zits? Shouldn't that time in my life be over by now? I'll spare you the pictures...but trust me if we were having a face to face conversation you would not be able to look me in the eys because you would be distracted by the enormous zit under my nose. This is just not fair!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Yesterday, we were invited to a Labor Day picnic with all of the families that my family used to hang out with "back in the day." It was a good time and my kids had a ball...for me it was also a time to ponder some "deep" thoughts about how fragile and forgetful people can be.

When I was growing up, my parents were very social. We went out every weekend...Friday was pizza night...Saturday was friend night, either we went there or they came to our house. A weekend wouldn't be complete unless those two nights were filled with friends, laughter and lots and lots of pizza. So needless to say, we, my brother and I, spent a lot of time with my parent's friends and their families. We "grew up" together.

Even with all that history, why is it so awkward to spend the afternoon with my "cousins?" Are we that shallow or that forgetful or that different??? It just seemed strange to me how awkward it was and that made me uncomfortable. I found myself thinking about the future for my own family...will there be a day when Ettemas, Deckers, Jacobsens and Nepkins force our children to come to a Labor Day party and our kids will act like they are surrounded by strangers? I guess it really wasn't that bad...in the end the atmosphere got more comfortable...but still it made me kind of sad when I thought of my own kids. How does the human mind forget friendships so quickly?? How do a group of kids who grew up together find themselves in such different worlds as adults? It's just strange.

If anyone of you went to a Labor Day picnic yesterday you will know that the bees were vicious! And they were everywhere! They literally swarmed around your head, buzzed in your ears and were constantly in your food. Early on in the afternoon, my mom got stung on her hand, right by her thumb knuckle. She was pretty brave about it but that really hurts. Her thumb swelled up and got really red, she couldn't bend it by the end of the evening. I too got stung. Dam bees! Right on my back! I was fishing with Christian & Jed and went to scratch my back and BAM! It hurt so bad. I was not brave like my mom...I was a baby! Got all weepy and flushed, it ruined the rest of my evening. After a while the pain got better but it was always there, mixing with my thoughts, invading my conversations and just plain making me crazy. And I thought again, how strange we humans are that a tiny bee could sting me and ruin my whole day. Sometimes we think we are so strong and in control when really all it takes is a tiny bee sting to halt everything we are doing and invade our lives.

Even today, the morning after, my mom and I are still miserable. We are so fragile!

Hope you had a good Labor Day. Spent time with good friends. Had time to reflect on human nature and learn something about yourself!

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Have you ever had anyone ask you what your biggest regret was? Mine?? I never learned to play an instrument...well. I lugged a French horn around for a couple of years and besides a backache and having the opportunity to hit many small children in the head as I walked to the back of the bus with the monstrosity it became when placed in the carrying case, that was the end of that experience. My mom, bless her heart, saved her tips for a year to buy me a piano when I was 15(when I look back on that now I see what a sacrifice she made, but at the time I was too dumb and too egocentric to notice). I took a total of 3 lessons (they were interspersed with my voice lessons) and then gave up because it was no fun to play scales and I didn't like to practice. Voice came easier, mom didn't want to fight. That was the end of that…mom sold the piano to buy my wedding gown.

So after Emily was born, Doug bought me a guitar. I had such high hopes that I would be able to teach myself how to play...everybody else seems to do it. The problem back then was I had a baby who never slept and constantly cried. When she finally grew out of that stage I was pregnant again...it's really hard to play guitar with a swollen abdomen. And then I got pregnant again...and that brings me to today in a really fast track sort of way.

I've learned that I love to write songs and that some of them are really pretty good...they make people cry… and that is the hallmark of a “good” song in my book. The problem is that even though I hear the music in my head, I've never learned how to play an instrument well enough to get it out of my head so others can hear it. AND I want to be part of the band now. They look like they have so much fun...they are cool, they are confident and it looks like a blast. So, it's back to the guitar and the keyboard for me.

Lately, I've been practicing guitar. I have been trying to practice for 20-30 minutes a day...sounds easy enough…but it’s like exercise…get my drift? Guitar is one of those instruments that just looks easy when other people play it...it really is not. My fingers ache so bad right now that it is painful to type this...the calluses on the fingers on my left hand make it difficult to untie knots, take out my earrings and pick up really small things like paperclips. And I think playing the guitar must be like driving a stick shift car...once you get the feel you're good to go but you have to find the magic, until then you just struggle.

So I'm struggling with the hope of finding the magic, being in the band, getting the music out of my head and into people's hearts. I guess ultimately I feel that if I got really good at 1 instrument it would make me a legitimate musician and I really want that too.

Friday, September 01, 2006

In an earlier post, I wrote that "I was disgusted by the traditional tone" of the prayer and praise service. Somebody called me on it, although they didn't sign their name...I think that is cowardice but I'm going to address it anyhow.

I am sorry for the way I wrote that post and hope to recant my words and clarify them...I don't know why you care but I do and so I need to post this. I am not as I stated earlier "disgusted" by traditional worship. That is how I was raised and I have respect for the hymns of the faith that have endured generations and have timeless messages that will never die. I love hymns that are played on big organs and sung loudly by large groups of people. I love hymns that are sung in the quiet of a nursery while rocking a baby. And I love the words of old hymns that come to me in the midst of trial such as, It is Well with My Soul, I Surrender All, and My Jesus I Love Thee.

What I was disturbed about or disgusted as I wrote earlier...after 4 days of not sleeping so cut me some slack please, was that the style of worship that my church and other supporting churches in the area were not represented. It wasn't in my opinion even attempted. I believe that was a "judgment" call by the Christian Education community. Maybe I will never be able to explain this because there is so much history involved...but, I longed for all styles of worship to be represented. I longed to sing the songs of our fathers and the songs of today. I longed for the older people in the congregation to accept, if you will, our worship songs. I use the term "our" loosely. I feel that having a service of strictly traditional worship in a group of many traditions, schools and communities is wrong. It shows elitism and issues a judgment on others who are "not like us."

I guess I was disgusted by the unspoken but clearly heard judgment that "traditional is best and all that "we" accept." That disgusts me. I wishe "we" would entertain that there are infinite ways to praise our Savior and Lord. There is no one way that is more spiritual or biblical or more right than any other. And I am disgusted when presented with that kind of attitude.

About Me

About the Author:
On a quest to figure out where God wants me, I am trying to take one faith step at a time each day. Most of my days are spent driving children to and from school, sports, rehearsals and church groups. It's quite possible that the word Honda from the drivers seat of my car has been permanently imprinted on my rear end. I also have the privilege of being the leader of the Worship Staff Team at New Life church where I get to encourage great people to accomplish their best. As part of that job I also get to sing and make music, help people worship Jesus and listen to his Spirit as He speaks to their hearts. MOPS has been a part of my life for almost 15 years and is one of the most important organizations I've ever been a part of.